Created by American cartoonist Bud Fischer, Mutt and Jeff was one of the first popular newspaper strips and the first that was published daily, debuting in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1907 before moving to the San Francisco Examiner in 1908. It remained in syndication for 75 years.

The strip revolves around Mutt, a racing enthusiast and gambler obsessed with schemes to get rich quickly, and his best friend Jeff, a former immate in a mental asylum. The strip was originally published on the Sports pages; as a result, Mutt's first schemes dealt exclusively with horse racing and often made references to races that happened the same day the strip was published. In 1918 Mutt and Jeff became a Sunday strip and by the 1920s it had spawned successful stage and silent film adaptations, both live-action and animated.

Teddy Schroeder asks his mother Margaret to read the newspaper funnies in February 1920. She proceeds to read the Mutt and Jeff strip, wondering what mischief they have gotten in this time. ("Anastasia")